Still Life with Peaches

Raphaelle Peale

Brooklyn Museum photograph

Object Label

A Poor Man’s Still Lifes

With a few objects arranged on a ledge before an indistinct background, Raphaelle Peale’s paintings suggest a restraint that perhaps reflects the impoverished circumstances of the artist’s life. Still Life with Cake portrays only a blemished apple, raisins, and a “poor man’s pound cake,” usually made from leftover dough, to which sugar or nutmeg would be added. In Still Life with Peaches, the relatively expensive dessert bowl adds refinement to the composition, but in all likelihood, Peale did not own it.

Caption

Raphaelle Peale American, 1774–1825. Still Life with Peaches, 1821. Oil on panel, 12 13/16 × 19 5/16 in. (32.5 × 49 cm) frame: 18 × 24 1/2 × 2 in. (45.7 × 62.2 × 5.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Caroline H. Polhemus Fund, 35.1865. No known copyright restrictions (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 35.1865_SL1.jpg)

Gallery

Not on view

Collection

American Art

Title

Still Life with Peaches

Date

1821

Medium

Oil on panel

Classification

Painting

Dimensions

12 13/16 × 19 5/16 in. (32.5 × 49 cm) frame: 18 × 24 1/2 × 2 in. (45.7 × 62.2 × 5.1 cm)

Signatures

Signed lower right: "Raphaelle Peale Septr. 14th. 1821."

Credit Line

Caroline H. Polhemus Fund

Accession Number

35.1865

Rights

No known copyright restrictions

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Frequent Art Questions

  • Are these sorts of still life paintings just a display of skill, or are they supposed to mean something more?

    They are actually both! They express or advertise the artist's skills, but still lifes also traditionally have overtones of the ephemerality of life.
    The luxuries depicted here are beautiful but the fruit would go bad very quickly. See if you can spot any signs that any of it is past its prime.

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